Today the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix was held and it might have marked a major turnaround for a famous race car manufacturer. The season is still young, but it looks like the teams are getting closer to each other in performance.
The race got underway with dull skies, but rain did not occur during the race. The race had a very good start with minimal car contact through the first two turns. The two Mercedes cars that started on the front row were able to maintain their starting positions through the first laps.
However, a little later the Mercedes team made a huge unforced error when they did not get the wheel nut tight on the right front tire of Michael Schumacher’s car causing Schumacher to retire and being classified as dead last in the race results.
Rosberg’s Mercedes continued to lead until after 30 laps when his tires just started to give way and his was forced to pit. His speed was getting slower and slower. Button, in a McLaren, passed Rosberg in the pits for the lead.
Later on Lap 40, Button had a very slow pit stop due to problems getting the right rear wheel tightened. This allowed Rosberg to regain the lead. And that was virtually the end of the race for first place. Rosberg had the lead and he drove just fast enough not to let Button catch up, while at the same time saving his tires. Rosberg went on to give Mercedes its first grand Prix victory since Fangio won at Monza in 1955.
There was very good racing back through the first 14 finishing positions. Raikkonen had a good race until his tires when away and he fell back to a final race finish position of fourteenth.
Hamilton finished third in a McLaren, while the two Red Bull Racing cars finished fourth and fifth with Webber ahead of Vettel.
Ferrari had another bad race result with Alonso earning only 2 points by finishing in 9th, while Massa finished 13th.
Romain Grosjean had another very good race with a solid 6th place finish. The final race finishing positions for the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix are shown in the table below:
Final Race Finish Positions For The 2012 Chinese Grand Prix
| Position | Driver | Team | |
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | |
| 2 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | |
| 4 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | |
| 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | |
| 6 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | |
| 7 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | |
| 8 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | |
| 10 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | |
| 12 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | |
| 13 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | |
| 14 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | |
| 16 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | |
| 17 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | |
| 18 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | |
| 19 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | |
| 20 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | |
| 21 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | |
| 22 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | |
| 23 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | |
| 24 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | Wheel nut |
The race caused significant changes to the World Drivers Championship standings. As a result of his great finish, Rosberg was able to make a significant upward move. The updated World Drivers Championship points standings after the Chinese Grand Prix race are shown in the following table:
Current Updated World Drivers Championship Points Standings After the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix Race
| Position | Driver | Team | Points | Poles | F/Laps |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 45 | 2 | |
| 2 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 43 | 1 | |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 37 | ||
| 4 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 36 | ||
| 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 28 | ||
| 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 25 | 1 | |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 22 | ||
| 8 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 16 | 1 | |
| 9 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 14 | ||
| 10 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 9 | 1 | |
| 11 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 8 | ||
| 12 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 7 | ||
| 13 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 4 | ||
| 14 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 4 | ||
| 15 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 2 | ||
| 16 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 2 | ||
| 17 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1 | ||
| – | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 0 | ||
| – | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 0 | ||
| – | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 0 | ||
| – | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 0 | ||
| – | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 0 | ||
| – | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 0 | ||
| – | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 0 |
The win by Rosberg’s Mercedes has given the Mercedes team a big boost in the World Manufacturers Championship. The current updated standings for the World Manufacturers Championship after the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix race are as follows:
Current Updated World Manufacturers Standings After the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix race
| Position | Team | Points |
| 1 | McLaren-Mercedes | 88 |
| 2 | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 64 |
| 3 | Ferrari | 37 |
| 4 | Sauber-Ferrari | 31 |
| 5 | Mercedes | 26 |
| 6 | Lotus-Renault | 24 |
| 7 | Williams-Renault | 18 |
| 8 | Force India-Mercedes | 9 |
| 9 | STR-Ferrari | 6 |
| – | Marussia-Cosworth | 0 |
| – | Caterham-Renault | 0 |
| – | HRT-Cosworth | 0 |
The next scheduled race is in Bahrain next weekend. This has been a controversial race venue, but at this time it seems that it will happen.
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